125 Pounds of Pulled Pork!!

Yesterday Saturday, October 17th was the annual Harvest Festival to benefit St. Pius V School in Providence, RI. This was our second year participating with our booth “Hog Heaven”. A friend of ours who is in the meat business generously donated 125 pounds of boneless pork shoulder the buns were donated by a local bakery and we bought all the ingredients for the BBQ sauce so 100% of the proceeds went to the school! We raised $700+!!

In preparation, one week before we made the BBQ sauce this will allow the flavors to marry. We used one gallon of ketchup, the zest of 4 limes and the juice of 6, ½ cup of Triple Sec, ¾ Cider Vinegar, 2 tablespoons of Cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of Allspice, 2 teaspoons of Cumin, Coriander and Chili Powder and one cup of brown sugar. We let this sit in a bowl for one day and bottled it.

On Friday; the day before the event we prepped the meat by trimming some of the fat but not all – Fat = Flavor!! The meat was rubbed with a dry rub mix of:

4 Cups of Brown Sugar
1 Cup Kosher Salt
¾ Cup of Cinnamon
2 Tablespoons of Allspice, Onion Salt and Chili Powder
1 Tablespoon of Cumin

The fire was started in the wood fired brick oven and allowed to burn for 2 hours. We removed most of the coals and put the meat in the oven, the oven was about 500F. The meat was in disposable aluminum roasting trays then placed in metal roasting pans, this was done for ease of cleanup. We then added to the pile of hot coals one bag of mesquite wood chips that had been soaked in one bottle of Crown Royal whiskey. Closed the oven up at 9pm leaving the door slightly ajar to allow for smoking of the chips.

The next morning at 9 am, we unloaded the oven and drained the juices that colleted in the roasting pans into a pot. We transported the meat to the festival and fired up the smoker. All but two pork shoulders were put on the smoker. We placed those two shoulders in an electric roasting pan and pulled the pork, as the day went on we would refill the electric roasting pan with additional shoulders from the smoker and pull them. Using the electric roasters the meat can tend to dry out the meat so we would add the juice and fat we had drained off from the roasting pans.

Everyone enjoyed the pulled pork and homemade root beer…we enjoyed making it and the school made money. A perfect day!

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2009 St Pius Harvest Fest

2009 WIne Making UPDATED Day 1 - 9

Day One:

We got THE phone call at 8:30 in the morning. “Get down to A.T. Siravo the grapes are in and they are going fast!!” That was not an understatement; we called and asked them to hold some Zinfandel grapes. We were told that two tractor-trailer loads were sold out but they had another suggestion for us. We were at the grape wholesaler by 9am the place was a zoo, Eddie the person who seemed to be running the operation took a shine to us, brought us for a mini tour, and let us taste all the grapes to allow us to make an informed decision as to what we wanted. We decided to up our original plan of just three cases of white wine grape to five cases. The Marvasi grape was so sweet and full of flavor – the sweetness will subside as the alcohol in the wine increases!! We also took 20 cases of Nebello grapes and 3 cases of Allegante grapes for a red wine blend.

We loaded up the pickup with the grape and additional 60-gallon primary fermenting tub. We thought we had everything secured until we rounded a corner and one of the cases of grape ends up in the middle of the street. Phil pulled over and salvaged what he could and put it back on the truck.

Now for the prep work to get ready for the next day. We swept the garage floor and put a tarp over it. Unloaded the grape from the truck washed and installed the spigots on the primary formation tubs. Bleached the wine press and left it out in the sun to dry. Tomorrow we will sterilize all the equipment prior to use.

Day Two

The carboys, fermenting tubs, wine press and anything that touches the grape was sterilized with C-Brite. It comes in a powered form that you mix with water; it has a slight bleach smell but will not alter the color of your clothes.

The crew started to arrive around 9am. We started with the white grape first. We destemmed the white grape and ran it through the crusher. The crushed grape is then placed in the wine press and squeezed several times to ensure all the juice has been expressed. We take the stems and skins and put them in our compost pile. The juice is run through a fine mesh metal strainer and through a funnel with a very fine mesh strainer. Therefore, the juice has been strained twice yet will still have sediment in it. The strained juice ends up in a glass carboy with an airlock. This will sit for a week or two so the sediment goes to the bottom and can the clear wine can be siphoned off the top.

The red wine is a bit of a different process. We crushed the grapes and put them directly in to large fermenting tubs. We will stir the crushed grape twice per day for 7 – 10 days. During this process the fermentation begins and the wine “boils”, you will hear a bubbling sound as the natural wild yeast on the grapes eats the sugar to produce alcohol and releases the carbon dioxide.

Both wines at this point are all natural and have no additives and no yeast. We may need to add some chemicals to the white wine to stop fermentation and to clarify but that remains to be seen in the coming weeks.

Now we sit back relax and enjoy a glass of last years vintage until next week when the work begins again!!

Day 7

We have been caring for the wine every day by turning the grape in the tub twice per day. As the grape is fermenting in the tub, it rises to the top and we push it down, this process keeps out bacteria and mold that could grow on the top but also helps in the fermentation process. On day 7, it was time to press the skins, stems and seeds. We once again sterilized everything that will come in contact with the grapes with the C-Brite solution. Once everything is sterilized we begin to drain the first tub, we use a fine mesh strainer to catch seed, small pieces of skins and other small particulates. The juice goes into a plastic bucket and is set aside. Once all the juice is drained, we remove all the skins, seeds and stems from the tub and place them into a plastic bin to be pressed. We now will clean the 90-gallon fermentation tub that the juice has been in for the past 7 days, once rinsed out the tub is moved to our basement and filled with the juice we just drained from the tub. Now the pressing begins. We press in small batches so it does not gum up the press and we get the most yield from the grape. The juice that comes from this pressing is then added to the tub in the basement. We repeat the process with the smaller tub, and add the contents to the 90-gallon tub in the basement. This will blend the two batches and ensure a consistent product.

Day 9

The wine has now been sitting in the basement for 2 days this allows some of the fine particulates to settle to the bottom and ensures all the flavors from the 2 tubs have married. We once again sterilize everything that will come in contact with the wine. We attach a hose to the spigot and begin to fill one of the two demis we have. A demi holds 16 gallons of wine. Once the 2 demis are filled we move onto the carboys; we have several different sizes of carboys ranging from 3 – 7 gallons. We then add oak chips to add that wonderful oak flavor you get from a fine wine that has been aged in oak barrels. The wine will now sit until sometime in December when we will bottle.


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2009 Wine Making

Cabbage Kale and Bread Soup!

Once again, the garden provides inspiration! We grew several Savoy cabbages in the garden this year. This cabbage is just spectacular! I have made this soup several times, however, never with homegrown Savoy cabbage. I picked it from the garden moments before it went into the chicken stock…can’t get much fresher than that.
This recipe is so with the trouble and time. You will need to multi task to keep the prep time to a minimum. Please do not let the anchovies scare you they melt in the bacon fat or you can just skip them and add salt!
So here is what you will need

Ingredients
• 3 quarts good-quality chicken (I like College Inn BOLD in the brown box)
• 1 Savoy cabbage, stalks removed, outer leaves separated, washed and roughly chopped
• 2 big handfuls of kale, stalks removed, leaves washed roughly chopped
• About 16 slices stale Italian bread
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• Olive oil
• 1 pound of bacon cut into lardons
• 1 (4-ounce) can anchovy fillets, in oil
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked
• 7 ounces fontina cheese, grated
• 5 ounces freshly grated Parmesan, plus a little for serving
• Sea salt (if you are not using anchovies)
• Couple large knobs butter
• Small bunch fresh sage, leaves picked

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan and add the cabbage and kale. Cook for a few minutes until softened (I did this in 2 batches). Remove the cabbage and kale to a large bowl, leaving the stock in the pan.

Toast all but 5 of the bread slices or in a toaster or on a cookie sheet in your oven, then rub them on 1 side with the garlic as they come out of the oven or toaster, and set aside.

Next, heat a large deep fry pan on the stovetop, start to fry your lardons of bacon (lardon is bacon cut into rectangular pieces) now add your anchovies. When the bacon is golden brown and sizzling add the anchovies. Once the anchovies are melted, add the rosemary and cooked cabbage and toss to coat the greens in all the lovely flavors. Put the mixture and all the juices back into the large bowl.

Place 4 of the toasted slices in the casserole-type dish, in 1 layer. Spread over 1/3 of the cabbage leaves, sprinkle over a 1/4 of the grated fontina and Parmesan and add a drizzle of olive oil. Repeat this twice, but don't stress if your pan's only big enough to take layers - that's fine. Just pour in all the juices remaining in the bowl and end with a layer of untoasted bread on top. Push down on the layers with your hands.

Pour the stock gently over the top until it just comes up to the top layer. Push down again and sprinkle over the remaining fontina and Parmesan. Add a good pinch of salt if you did not add the anchovies and drizzle over some good-quality olive oil. Bake in the preheated oven for around 30 minutes, or until crispy and golden on top.

When the soup is ready, divide it between your bowls. Melt the butter in a frying pan and quickly fry the sage leaves until they're just crisp and the butter is lightly golden (not burned!). Spoon a bit of the flavored butter and sage leaves over the soup and add another grating of Parmesan. Such a great combo!
This is a great hearty dish for those crisp cool nights!

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Cabbage Soup

Blueberry Wine

We have been making wine directly from crushing grapes or with a kit. Phil decided to try something different and make a blueberry grape wine. We started with 4 pounds of green grape and 6 ½ pounds of blueberries. We first crushed the green grape then the blueberries in the hand-cranked crusher. We put them in a stockpot added water to cover the fruit and added 7 pounds of sugar. We let this boil for about 10 minutes.

We then placed a mesh bag over the primary plastic fermenting bucket. This was to catch the skins of the grape and blueberries. We poured the mixture into the bucket and tied off the mesh bag. At this point, we added cool water to bring the volume up to the 3-gallon point and allow mixture to become room temperature. At this point we than could add 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrients, ¾ teaspoon of pectin enzyme and 1 package of champagne yeast. We chose champagne yeast to dry the wine out so it would not be too sweet. We stirred the mixture twice a day for 3 days. On the third day, we pressed the juice from the skins that were in the mesh bag. We let the juice stay in the bucket for another 3 days.

The juice was then transferred to a glass carboy where it was allowed to ferment for 1 week. We racked the wine to get rid of the sediment. Racking just means transferring from one container to another. The wine was again allowed to sit and ferment for 2 more weeks.

When the wine in the carboy stops producing gas its time to bottle. We transferred the wine from the glass carboy to a plastic bottling bucket. The bottles and corks were sterilized and we began to transfer the wine into the bottles and corked the wine. It will now sit and age for about 3 -4 months before we will be able to drink it

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Blueberry Wine

Smoked Salsa

We have an abundance of tomatoes and peppers from our garden. It has been a banner year for tomatoes since we had so much rain early in the season! Therefore, we decided to make salsa with our harvest.

7 pounds of chopped tomatoes
1 pound of finely diced peppers
1 large red and yellow onion chopped
1 head of garlic chopped
1 bunch of cilantro (just the leaves)
1 bunch of thyme (just the leaves)
6 red hot peppers chopped
3 tablespoons of kosher salt
2 ounces of lime juice
6 shakes of Tabasco Smoked Chipotle sauce
1 capful of liquid smoke

First, we boiled the jars, rings and lids to sterilize. Chopped all the ingredients. In a pan with hot oil we added the onions let them cook for about one minute then add the garlic. We then added the peppers and tomatoes salt, hot peppers, lime juice, Tabasco and the liquid smoke. This cooked for about 8-9 minutes we then added the cilantro and thyme.

The mixture was removed from the stove and we began to fill the jars with the salsa. We wiped the edge of each jar with a clean paper towel then lifted the lid with a magnet and placed the lid on the top of the jar. You need to be careful not to touch the sterilized lids and jars so your salsa does not become contaminated, Once the lid is in place we twisted the rings in place to hold the lids. Back into the boiling water bath. The jars boiled for 15 minutes and were removed from the water and allowed to cool. As the jars are cooling, you will hear the lids popping and sealing themselves. If they do not pop, you can push them down and as long as they do not pop back up it is a good seal! Once completed cooled we removed the rings and labeled the salsa. Good eats!!!

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Smoked Salsa

Spent Grain Bread

We helped a neighbor make his first batch of beer some grain was used in the brewing process so we thought we would attempt to make a Spent Grain bread. The recipe is adapted from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book (if you like whole grain bread, this book is great!). It takes two days, but it is worth the wait. It uses 'spent grain’, which is the grains that are left over from brewing beer. In the home brewing process, these grains were steeped for about a half hour in boiling water. The taste, texture, and color of the bread will vary considerably with the type of grain used for the beer there will be a big difference between a stout and pale ale grains, our bread was made with pale ale grain. If you're not a home brewer try asking your friends or you could also ask a local microbrewery.

This recipe makes two medium or 4 small loaves, or about two dozen rolls.

Day 1:
About 20 minutes of work.
Soaker
The soaker works to hydrate the grains in the whole wheat by mixing it with water and salt and let it sit overnight. This makes the grain softer but also enhances flavor and makes the bread a little sweeter (check Reinhart's book for the whole explanation).
Ingredients:
• 454 g / 1 lb whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp (8 g) salt
• 1½ cups water
Mix all soaker ingredients until flour is fully hydrated, then cover and let sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours. Can be refrigerated up to 3 days.

Biga
Reinhart uses the term 'Biga' for an overnight starter that uses a small amount of yeast and also soaks the whole wheat flour to increase flavor and acidity.
Ingredients:
• 454 g / 1 lb whole wheat flour
• 5/8 tsp active dry yeast (1/2 tsp instant dry yeast)
• 1½ cups warm water
Make a well in the flour. Pour the water into the well and then sprinkle the yeast in the water. Mix the water, gradually drawing in all the flour until hydrated. Once you have a ball of dough, knead in the bowl using wet hands for about two minutes. You may need to wet your hands again, but be careful not to add too much water to the dough.
Let the dough rest for five minutes, and then knead again with wet hands for about one minute. This time, the dough will be easier to work with, although it will still be tacky. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

Day 2:
About 2 hours de-chill, then 20 minutes mixing followed by 2-3 hours fermentation. Baking takes 45-60 minutes.
Now we make the bread. Remove the Biga from the refrigerator about two hours before starting to mix the final dough.

Ingredients:
• Soaker
• Biga
• 225 g spent grain
• 113 g whole wheat flour
• 2¼ tsp (10 g) salt
• 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp active dry yeast (1½ Tbsp instant dry yeast)
• 85 g (4½ Tbsp) honey
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil (optional)
• Extra whole wheat flour for adjustments
Chop the soaker and biga into 10-12 smaller pieces each - sprinkle some extra flour to keep them from sticking to each other. Hydrate the yeast in a little warm water (just enough to form a thick paste). Add to biga and soaker pieces along with the remaining ingredients except extra flour. Mix with a spoon or knead with wet hands for a few minutes to evenly distribute all ingredients. Take the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 3-4 minutes until dough is soft and tacky but not sticky. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest on the counter for five minutes.

Knead the dough again for about a minute. The dough should feel soft, supple, and very tacky. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, covering it in oil on all sides. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes.

Form the dough into two loaves or smaller rolls. Cover loosely and let rise an additional 45 to 60 minutes.

IN A COVENTIONAL OVEN: Preheat oven to 425F. Add a steam pan to the oven and a hearth stone. When you put the bread into the oven, pour a cup of water into the steam pan and spray several times with a water mister inside the oven (not on the bread). The purpose is to create steam that will produce a crusty crumb on the bread. Lower the temperature to 350F and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the bread 180°and bake another 20-30 minutes until the bread is done (thump the bottom to hear if it sounds hollow).

IN A BRICK OVEN: Heat oven to about 500F have a cast iron fry pan heating in the oven. Take out coals and cast iron pan and brush off hearth surface. Put pan back in oven and pour heated water in pan to create steam. Place the loves of bread in oven. Spray inside of oven with a misting spray bottle Close oven check after one half hour you may need to let the loaves stay in for another 15 minuets or so (thump the bottom to hear if it sounds hollow).

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy! Leave a comment if you try it out and let us know how it went.

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Spent Grain Bread

Homemade Soda

Today we made three batches of homemade diet soda. We started with Cream, then Raspberry and lastly Root Beer. It is a very simple process the one caveat is you must sterilize everything that comes in contact with the liquid and keep an eye in the temp of the liquid or you could lose the whole batch to mold or non-carbonation.

First, we sterilize the bottles with a solution of C-Brite, a powder mixed with water; you can find it at any homebrew store. We own two bottle washers one we put the C-Brite mix in and one we fill with plain water. First we rinse with the C-Brite and rinse with the water. We now need to sterilize the bottling bucket once again first the C-brite and a rinse with plain water to remove the residue from the C-Brite.

Now to make the soda mix. We mix one package of champagne yeast (purchased from the homebrew store) in one cup of 100F water, mix and let sit or bloom. Next in a sterilized bowl, we place 6 cups of Splenda and 2 cups of white sugar. The soda ends up sugar free because the yeast eats the real sugar and produces carbon dioxide gas, which is the natural carbonation in our soda. If we did not put the real sugar in the yeast would not have anything to feed off of and the soda would be flat. We then add 100F water and the soda base and stir until all the sugar is dissolved.

The sugar, Splenda, soda base and water mix are now transferred to the bottling bucket and more water is added to reach the 4 gallon mark. The temp is tested again and should be in the 98 – 104F range. The bloomed yeast is now added and stirred vigorously.

The sterilized bottles are now filled with the soda mix and capped with sterilized caps. The soda should be kept at room temperature and will be fully carbonated in one to two weeks. If soda did not carbonate one or more of these things could have gone wrong – something was not sterilized and killed off the yeast, the bottles were not sealed correctly and the gas escaped, the mix was too hot or too cold and the yeast was killed off.

All supplies including the soda base can be found at your local homebrew store or on the internet!

Give it a try!

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Homemade Soda